Rollback of the 2015 Clean Power Act

As people of faith we must do all we can to take care of our ‘common home,’ the earth on which we live.

Of deep concern is the rollback of the 2015 Clean Power Act by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Power Act is designed to set limits on carbon pollution. How ironic that the EPA admits that its replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, would lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths, 48,000 new cases of “exacerbated asthma,” and at least 21,000 new missed days of school each year.

Pope Francis in “Laudato Si” (n.165) expresses well our concerns: “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay…..Politics and business have been slow to react in a way commensurate with the urgency of the challenges facing our world.”

It is our human responsibility to stop the downward spiral of environmental degradation which harms our health and diminishes the beauty and biodiversity of the earth.